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The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes - In review

It's that time again to review the March Book Club selection for Julie's blogger book club! This month, the book that I voted for was not selected (unlike the previous two months) however, I think I am glad that the book that was chosen was the one that won out.

For our March book club, we read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain.

I have not read any of Ms Chamberlain's books previously, although they ALWAYS pop up on my recommendations list on amazon (I think that is because I have purchased many Jodi Picoult books) and so I have been meaning to try some for quite a while!

Quick book recap:
CeeCee works in a diner as a young woman on her own. She has been living in the foster care system since the age of 12, and is trying to make her life hers now.

She meets a young man in his mid-twenties, Timothy Gleason, and he charms her. They date and she falls helplessly in love with the older man. He fills her in on his family life, including his sister who he tells her is in prison, awaiting the death penalty, for killing a man who raped her. CeeCee is very sympathetic to this story and feels for Tim and his brother Marty.

Eventually she is wrapped up in a plot to help free their sister by kidnapping the Governor's wife and holding her hostage until the sister is released, but Genevieve is pregnant and dies while being held. CeeCee knows what happened to her, as well as her infant which she gives birth to with CeeCee's help, but she must keep silent to protect herself and her family.

Holy smokes.

I started this book immediately after purchasing it for my kindle and was a quarter of the way through it the first night. It had me wrapped up in the story immediately. Initially, I was absorbed because I could identify with CeeCee. Her complete devotion to Timothy prior to the kidnapping reminds me of my younger, more co-dependant, self. As the story went on, it became less relateable (for obvious reasons,) but even more interesting.

The book reads VERY quickly, and it is definitely a fast read. And overall, I loved it.

However, there was one thing that I had an issue with. As we get to the point of Cory being an older child, we start to fly through time. I was kind of telling the story to J as I was reading it, and he was like "wait, how much have you read? wasn't she just 8?" and all of a sudden she was 18. I feel like to fully understand how Cory got to the point that she did, not even speaking to her mother, we need a little bit more insight. I mean, all parents are very protective of their children! At the same time, I know that this was not necessarily as important to the story overall, so it was kind of glazed over since it was already a book of a certain length.

I wish that there was a there was a little bit more focus on the relationship between Dru and Cory. I feel like that had an important role to play, that was not as outlined as I thought it could be.

So, what did you think of the book? If you had a mother that was SUPER overprotective, did you rebel? Most kids do to an extent, but did you lose touch? I know that I didn't, despite being the oldest and therefore most protected.

Comments

Great review! I agree with you about the fast read! I could not put this book down. I also wanted more development of Cory's phobias. I honestly didn't think CeeCee was super overprotective of Cory, it seemed like she was just really cautious. The relationship between Dru and Cory did intrigue me as well and I wish Chamberlain could have developed it more.